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SALT LAKE CITY - The University of Utah men's basketball team (13-7, 4-2 MWC) looks to stay at the top of the Mountain West Conference standings via a seventh straight home victory Saturday as the Runnin' Utes host co-league leader New Mexico (13-8, 4-2 MWC). Tipoff is slated for 1:30 p.m. MT and will lead a triple-header of games televised live on The mtn.
The Utes are coming off an emotional 94-88 overtime victory at the Huntsman Center against BYU Tuesday night. Led by a career-high 32 points from senior center Luke Nevill (Perth, Australia), Utah's win snapped a four-game losing streak against its biggest rival. Utah is now 8-2 on the year at home, including a 3-0 mark in MWC games.
New Mexico enters Saturday's contest after posting a 68-50 win against Colorado State in The Pit on Wednesday, improving to 10-2 on the year at home. The Lobos are 3-6 away from home, however, going 3-4 in true road games and 0-2 in neutral-site contests. UNM and Utah hold identical 1-2 in league road games this year against the same opponents. Both squads fell at San Diego State and UNLV, while winning at Air Force. The Lobos are also 3-0 at home in the conference.
The 7-2 Nevill, who is making a strong case for All-American and MWC Player of the Year honors, leads the Utes with 18.0 points per game to go with 8.5 rebounds and 2.6 blocks. His team-leading counterparts for New Mexico are senior guard Tony Danridge with 13.4 points per game, while junior forward Roman Martinez is the Lobos' top rebounder with 6.0 boards per contest. Senior forward Daniel Faris is their leading shot-blocker at 1.62 per game, third in the league behind Nevill.
New Mexico got the better of the Utes in both of last year's regular-season meetings, including a 72-71 win in Salt Lake City which snapped Utah's string of 18 consecutive wins over the Lobos in the Huntsman Center. Prior to the one-point stunner, Utah had not lost at home to UNM since Feb. 16, 1989.
The Utes broke through in their third meeting last year with an 82-80 overtime win at the MWC Tournament in Las Vegas.
Utah holds a 77-45 advantage in the all-time series against the Lobos, including a 51-6 mark at home. After falling to UNM twice in the regular season last year, Utah got the better of the Lobos at the MWC Tournament in Las Vegas, 82-80, in overtime.
Recently, not much has separated the two teams on the floor as four of their last five meetings have required overtime to determine a winner. The only non-overtime game in the last five was the aforementioned one-point victory by the Lobos last year.
